Self or No Self? What Did The Buddha Say?

The idea of self is a fallacy. It is a mental process, this becoming. The brain develops a sense of self between 18 to 30 months, this proves that the self is illusory all together. They cannot recognize themselves in the mirror before that. The brain has evolved to develop a perception of self to protect the body from annihilation so that it can pass on the genes. As we grow, this idea of a self, completely generated in the brain becomes stronger and stronger based on neuro-synaptic wiring through conditioning.

The truth must be experienced through deep deep meditation - it's the only way to know what's really happening. You can find it, you can search for it, but through directed through and evaluation leading into the Jhanas, the sense of self can be seen arising on it's own without effort. It arises due to prior content and contact in the mind and from the world. The Buddha taught dependent origination and this is the key to understanding how things really work. All of it is an impersonal process from causes and conditions.

The cause of rebirth is a little trickier to understand. It can be thought of as a candle passing on it's flame. The flame is not the candle or the wick or the wax or the oxygen it burns, but it is dependent upon the physical matter. In this way, the candle can pass it's flame from a lit candle to another candle and carry on the flame. The only thing is, the flame is not the same flame, it is an entirely new flame. This flame is born again and again in each moment and has not constant identity or self. It is a product of the oxygen and wick and wax burning again and again. The spark from the previous flame lights the wick anew each and every moment.

We are fooled into believing in a self because it is beneficial for the evolutionary forces within our body and brain. There may be some kind of universal energy (Qi) or intelligence, but it is not a god or self or us in any way. Just as plants grow out of some kind of organizing potential, we also grow out of that, but that does not mean we are it. It is some kind of universal momentum or continuum.

The Buddha taught that we should strive to be freed from this continuum, he called it Samsara.

He asked the monastics, "What do you think, monks: Which are more numerous, the few simsapa leaves in my hand or those overhead in the simsapa forest?"

"The leaves in the hand of the Blessed One are few in number, lord. Those overhead in the simsapa forest are more numerous."

"In the same way, monks, those things that I have known with direct knowledge but have not taught are far more numerous [than what I have taught]. And why haven't I taught them? Because they are not connected with the goal, do not relate to the rudiments of the holy life, and do not lead to disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation, to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding. That is why I have not taught them.

"And what have I taught? 'This is stress... This is the origination of stress... This is the cessation of stress... This is the path of practice leading to the cessation of stress': This is what I have taught. And why have I taught these things? Because they are connected with the goal, relate to the rudiments of the holy life, and lead to disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation, to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding. This is why I have taught them.

"Therefore your duty is the contemplation, 'This is stress... This is the origination of stress... This is the cessation of stress.' Your duty is the contemplation, 'This is the path of practice leading to the cessation of stress.'"

The Buddha simplified things for us and we always want to complicate it and attach meaning or search for meaning. The beauty of his teaching is that we will experience a sort of universal love when we practice Metta and lean towards Nibbana. However, this love is not our love, or god's love or anything of the sort - it simply is and if we try to define it or identify with it, we become trapped again into this process of becoming and lose touch with it truly. It is only through complete dis-identification that "we" can become freed from the process of birth and death and the ideas of us and other.
I highly recommend spending some time on www.accesstoinsight.org if you are interested in deepening your knowledge of the Buddha's teachings. May you be well and happy. Ami